The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1887-03-09

hands Of an able general and who ha:
acquired an intimate and complete
kuowledge OF what these two contcndinG
! american armies were really like viii,
( think, agree that from first to last th(
cooperation Of even one army corps o.
regular troops would have given com
! plcte victory to whichever side it fought
/ On.
AT ANTIETAM.
Lord Wolselcy says that Lee told him
that he had only 10000 men in front Of
Mcclellan at Antietam, with few tired
reserves behind, while Mcclellan had an
army Of 100000 men. He states that
Lee always spoke well Of Mcclellan,
though he spoke bitterly OF none OF his
/ Federal opponents. In his reference to
the t!lirty-tive days fighting around
Richmond Just before the surrender al
Appomattox, WolSeley says: Lee had
only $1,000 exhausted soldiers to op,
pose l90, coo fresh men under General
Grant.
In speaking of the faults of General
Lee he says: zone of them was too
great dread of wounding the feelings OF
others, which lead him to leave lncom-
petent men to fill important positions.
This softness of heart or suitability,
however good in itself, may amount 10
crime in the man int-csted with public
affairs at critical moments. Lees devo-
ton to duty and great respect for obedi-
erce seems at times to have made him
too subservient to those charged with the
civil government of his country. He
carried out too literally the orders OF
those whom the Confederate constitu-
ton made his superiors, although he
must have known them TO be entirely
ignorant of the science of war. He ap-
pears to have forgotten that lie was the
great revolutionary chief, engaged in a
great revolutionary war; that he was no
mere leader III a political struggle Of
parties carried on within the lines of an
old, well established form of govern
mept. It was very clear 20 many at the
time, as it viii be commonly acknowl-
edged now, that the South could only
nope to win under the rule of !; military
dictator. Ii General Washington had
had Mr.. Davis over him, could he
have accomplished what he did? 1t
viii, am sure, be news to many that
General Lee was given the command
over all the Confederate armies month
or two only before the final collapse,
and that the military policy Of the South
was throughout the war dictated by Mr..
Davis as President of the Confederate
States. Lee had no power to reward
soldiers or to promote officers. 1t was
lIr. Davis who selected the men to COM
mard divisions and armies. Is it to be
supposed that Cromwell, King William
LII, Washington or Napoleon could
have succeeded in the revolutions with
which their names are identified, had
they submitted to the Will and authority
Of politician as Lee did to Nh. Davis?'
DEFENSE OF RICHMOND.
Lord Wolseley says that General Lee
was opposed to the defense of Richmond
at the last, and that he was right, for if
he had drawn General Grants army into
tie interior far away from its base Of
supplies, he would have greatly weak
ened il. But it were vain to speculate.
Richmond fell and Lees army srlrren-
dered Who shall ever fathom the depth
Of Lees anguish when the bitter end
came, and when, beaten down by sheer
force OF numbers and by absolutely
nothing else, ne found himself obliged
TO Surrender? The handful of starving
men remaining with him laid down their
arms and the proud Confederacy ceased
to be. Surely the crushing, maddening
anguish Of awful sorrow is only known
TO the l-ader, vino has so failed to ac-
complish some lofty, some noble aim for
which he has long striven with might
and main, with heart and soul in the in
teresis OF king or of country. 4 smiling
face, q cheerful manner may conceal the
sore place from the eyes, possibly even
from the knowledge OF his friends, but
there is no healing for such wound
which eats into the very heart Of him
who has once received it.
AN ESTIMATE OF LEE.
The article closes with this enthusias-
tic estimate Of the Confederate chieftain:
':When all the angry feelings reused by
the secession are buried with those which
existed when the declaration of inde-
pendence was written; when Americans
can review the history OF their last great
rebellion with calm impartiaity, 1 be-
lieve all will admit that General Lee
| lowered far above all men on either side
in tnat struggle. believe he will be
regarded not only as the most prominent
figure OF the Confederacy, but as the
great American of the nineteenth centu,
ry, whose statue is Wei worthy to stand
on an equal pedestal with that of Wash,
ington, and whose memory is equally
worthy to be enshrined in the hearts o1
all his countrymen."